1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to retainers for holding together concrete wall forms of panel unit type. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bolt and wedge assembly in which the bolt is disposed within a support member resists slidable movement of the bolt, and the position of the bolt is disengagably fixable.
2. Prior Art
Concrete wall forms are in common usage in the art for forming pourable concrete walls. Such concrete wall forms normally have transverse flanges extending outwardly thereform for alignment with adjacent wall forms.
In the construction industy, in order to pour concrete walls, it is common to use modular wall from panel units and to connect several of these units together temporarily as a template to pour a concrete wall. Trimmer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,771, discloses a reinforcement for concrete wall form connectors in which reinforcing plates are placed on tranverse flanges of prefabricated panels, allowing the panels to be fixedly attached to one another in preparatiion to form a concrete wall. Alignable apertures are formed within these plates and a pin member fits in the aligned apertures to fix them in an aligned relationship. The pin member has a slot formed transversely therein and a wedge is insertable in the slot to retain two prefabricated panels in an aligned configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,717 was issued to the present inventors for a wedge and bolt assembly for panel units, and discloses a blot assembly which is attached to a first prefabricated panel by a bolt support, which slidably supports the bolt. A single annular groove is provided around the circumference of the bolt to accept a wedge therein and to fix the bolt in a retracted position for disassembly or storage of the panel unit when a wall is completed. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,717 is here incorporated by reference.
However, the wedge and bolt assembly of applicant's prior patent still has some limitations, since it is time consuming and inconvenient for a worker to align the wedge with the annular groove when the bolt is in a retracted position, and to hammer the wedge into position.